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In January, under Paris’s Pont Alexandre III, models made their way down Margiela’s couture runway, their porcelain makeup made only more doll-like by their sultry, “broken doll” walks choreographed by Pat Boguslawski. Days later, in New York’s Park Avenue Armory, big-haired, long-lashed models emerged onto the Marc Jacobs runway under late artist Robert Therrien’s giant folding table and chairs — as if in a doll’s house.
“We talk about our age, or time passing, all that stuff. I always wish I could look at things now, the way I did when I was a nine-year-old who couldn’t wait to get back-to-school clothes,” Jacobs told Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps on Vogue’s “The Run Through” podcast, off the heels of his off-schedule New York show. “Because everything was so monumental.”
Jacobs’s yearn for childlike wonder was a sign of what was to come this Autumn/Winter 2024 season. Since, GCDS’s show invite arrived packaged as a Polly Pocket doll, and the brand featured a Polly Pocket-filled bag on the runway (a hint at its forthcoming actual Polly Pocket, set to launch in 2025); Dilara Findikoglu incorporated doll-like looks; Simone Rocha, bowed-up as ever, had a host of models carry toy animals; and Cult Gaia’s creative director Jasmin Larian Hekmat, who holds the same role at Bratz, flew to Paris for fashion week with both titles at the forefront.
What’s with all the dolls?
It’s an extension of the girly look we’ve been seeing for a little while now, says professor Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion and founder of consultancy Psychology Fashion. Now, beyond sweet bows and ballet flats, designers are taking the theme further into the realm of the surreal. The doll aesthetic blurs the lines between reality and fiction, while posing as a response to the tragic news we’re bombarded with on the daily. “It’s one thing after another: the climate and the politics and the wars and everything else that’s going on in the world,” Mair says. “We all have an inner child, psychologically. We want to return to that in times of stress.”
The girlhood — and doll, by extension — aesthetic is most popular with chat-based luxury commerce platform Threads Styling’s Gen Z clients, says fashion director Hannah Lewis. “[It] has a lot to do with their exposure to the internet and social media at an early age, which replaced the ‘standard’ childhood — so they’re now looking back to what feels safe and nostalgic to their inner child,” she says. TikTok talk around “healing your inner child” also plays a role, Lewis flags. “[It] has given individuals the idea they can seek that through youthful, fun dressing.”
Even Mrs Prada, whose AW24 womenswear collection features bows aplenty, told Vogue for the magazine’s March issue: “Every single morning I have to decide if I am a 15-year-old girl or an old lady near to death.”
Tough times
Even more than the girlhood trend, the doll aesthetic is a poignant avenue for escapism. “Dolls are so strong in their power because we can relate to them, because of their human-like features,” Mair says, likening them to babies. “We warm to them; it creates an emotional connection.”
Brands are leaning into the importance of reaching consumers on an emotional level. “This is where the power lies,” Mair says. When brands tap consumers’ emotions, collections (and runway shows) are more readily accessible in their memories. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons recognise this: “Rather than an intellectual examination, this collection is an emotional reaction,” read Prada’s AW24 womenswear show notes. Jacobs, too, told Vogue’s Phelps on the podcast: “What I’m looking for is some kind of emotional reaction.”
Off-runway, dolls are also making appearances. For Threads Styling US content creator Tiffany Wang, who carried a doll to this season’s NYFW shows, it’s a source of security. “It’s the comfort of having a stuffed animal that you bring around as a child,” she says. “This one is just elevated and in the form of a customised doll.” Simone Rocha tapped this with the animal-shaped bags wedged beneath models’ arms.
Fashion writer India Roby carries an American Girl doll around at fashion week (she’s done so for multiple seasons). For Roby, carrying the doll (which she calls Nana) is a way of living out her childhood dreams — she couldn’t afford an American Girl doll growing up. “It’s a way of embracing something I never had the chance to do, which is why I pull up to fashion week unapologetic,” she says.
It’s also a means of navigating turbulent times. “Girlhood for me is a way of rediscovering who I am at 23 years old amid a very mentally difficult year,” Roby says. “My American Girl doll at fashion week is light-hearted fun during my most tumultuous year.”
To grow up or grow down?
Designers seem to be grappling between fashion that is commercial and mature and that which is world-building, inspiring consumers to dream beyond our current reality. In Milan, designers leaned into the former, resulting in a season “limited by sameness”, says Vogue Runway’s Luke Leitch. In New York, resident girlhood poster child Sandy Liang balanced her classic flats and bows with more mature pieces, from tailored workwear to sleek knits. And in London, Rocha toyed with the doll aesthetic. “While the collection was titled ‘The Wake’ and focused on sex and death, it was interesting to see both the collection and hair and makeup artists reflect a doll-like aesthetic,” Lewis says.
GCDS’s AW24 show, which creative director Giuliano Calza calls “toys for adults”, illustrates this tension. The show, he told Vogue Business, is a response to fashion critics that suggested he needed to grow up. “Why can I not be taken seriously and be entertaining?” His answer was a bridge of childhood nostalgia with more mature tailoring. “It’s quite grown up, the palette is darker, and there’s childlike elements hidden in grown-up organza or under dresses,” Calza says ahead of the show. In addition to the Polly Pocket bag, 70 per cent of the collection featured Hello Kitty elements, Lewis says.
Will it sell?
Last year, the girlhood aesthetic sold well. Ballet flats remain strong from 2023, says Katie Rowland, director for womenswear, kidswear and fine jewellery at Mytheresa (she flags the Alaïa ballet flat as a standout). There was a surge in bow and flower-detailed items, and the Barbiecore trend (which, she says, is characterised by tweeds, pinks and bows) experienced an uptick in demand. Even so, the trend generated better engagement than overall sales, says Threads’s Lewis. She flags Miu Miu and Chanel as brand leaders, and flats and cardigans as the most popular item categories.
Balletcore and coquettecore are translatable to the everyday via flats, bows and frills. But can the doll aesthetic generate sales?
“Channelling the doll aesthetic may generate headlines and social media content, but its commercial appeal remains uncertain,” Rowland says. The focus needs to be on translating the aesthetic into a “broader feminine trend”, she says. “For SS24, we emphasised reds and pinks, along with bows and roses, presenting an enchanted garden motif with pastels and florals in dresses.”
Rowland expects the resonance of this escapist theme to be more down to the notions of girlhood and femininity of pieces than to the dolls themselves. Perhaps, ironically, the introduction of dolls signals a maturation of the aesthetic. “The AW24 colour palette shifts towards darker tones, such as black and burgundies, indicating a transition towards a more mature interpretation of girlhood, perhaps moving away from the fresh-faced Barbie aesthetic to a more traditional doll-inspired look.”
For Matches head of womenswear’s Liane Wiggins, commercial success lies in grounding the otherwise-whimsical aesthetic. “For styling, take a modern approach that doesn’t feel too theatrical,” she says. “I think most women like the mix of masculine and feminine while dressing this way. A whimsical skirt from Cecilie Bahnsen can be toughened up with an oversized knit, or you could style a taffeta blouse from Molly Goddard with wide-leg denim from Raey.”
Like Barbiecore, Lewis expects the doll aesthetic to be a key engagement driver across socials, but expects only small elements of the trend to generate sales. “Dolls are niche and while elements of the doll-dressing trend may sell, most consumers won’t participate unless they already have an interest already,” she says. “For many they are still considered slightly creepy, so the mainstream are unlikely to convert. For those that are already participating, it’s about nostalgia.”
It’s because of this that dolls can hold consumer appeal, Mair says: it’s down to the childhood memories they trigger. Plus, she says, we’re drawn to novelty — and the doll trend feels both novel and takes us back to a time of more fresh experiences. “[This] is why we fall back on nostalgia: to take us away and find novelty in the past.”
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